Various forms of storage systems are used today to store data. These forms include direct attached storage (DAS) network attached storage (NAS) systems, storage area networks (SANs), and others. Network storage systems are commonly used for a variety of purposes, such as providing multiple users with access to shared data, backing up data and others.
A shared storage system typically includes at least one computing system executing a storage operating system for storing and retrieving data on behalf of one or more client computing systems (“clients”). The storage operating system stores and manages shared data containers in a set of mass storage devices.
A master-less, NoSQL database cluster uses a plurality of computing nodes to store a database including database logs, and replicas of the database at shared storage systems. Each cluster node is equal in status and stores the data and database logs for a database application. Backing up distributed databases efficiently, without quiescing database applications is challenging because of the number of computing nodes and clients that access distributed databases at any given time. Continuous efforts are being made to efficiently backup and restore databases that are stored at distributed, master-less database clusters.